For the first time in five years, the members of Neurotica are dusting off their drumheads, re-stringing their guitars and cranking up their amplifiers.

The hard-rock band from Sarasota is back with its original lineup, blazing and eager to show locals what they've been missing. Reuniting for an all-ages reunion show at Gallery Billiards on Friday, the group that once shared the stage with Ozzy Osbourne and graced the pages of Rolling Stone is on an upward swing.

"After all these years, we had our first rehearsal, and I'm telling you, it was like a bomb dropped on that room," said frontman/vocalist Kelly Shaefer. "The paint peeled right off the walls. It was amazing, and made us all feel really excited about the show."

It's good to finally be pumped about Neurotica again, Shaefer said, after what its members endured during the band's initial eight-year run. Shaefer and his crew -- Shawn Bowen (guitar), Louis Polito (guitar), Migwell Przybyl (bass) and G.J. Gosman (drums) -- saw everything from stadium tours and national radio airplay to failed record labels and misdirected publicity.

The whirlwind began circa 1995, when AC/DC's Brian Johnson, a Bird Key resident, caught a Neurotica gig at the Monterey Deli on Sarasota's Main Street. The newly formed band was playing for a crowd of 75, and Johnson stumbled in. Impressed, he offered to produce their first CD.

In 1996, Bubba the Love Sponge from Tampa radio station 98 Rock (WXTB FM) played the single "Easy Speak" on his morning show. Calls inundated the station, and soon, 85 radio networks were broadcasting the song.

There was only one problem: Neurotica's distributor, K-tel Records, went bankrupt at the same time the song was dazzling the airwaves. No one could buy the CD. Within about four months, the buzz subsided.

"You only get a certain period of time when a song is hot on the radio," Shaefer said. "So when people want to buy your record and it isn't there, you have nothing."

Still, Ozzfest came, as did the nod from Rolling Stone, deeming Neurotica one of the 10 best bands to see on the 2002 version of the tour. But when Neurotica signed a multimillion-dollar contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Vince McMahon's fledgling label, Smackdown Records, more trouble ensued. The record was mismanaged, and the deal eventually flopped.

"Everybody was just defeated at that point when we got to the end of the Ozzfest tour," Shaefer said. "It was so hard to go through all that, to go out and try it all over again."

Shaefer turned his attention to other ventures, such as Unheard and a reunion of his pre-Neurotica band, Atheist, which just completed a massive European tour.

He even auditioned for the lead vocalist position in Velvet Revolver, making the final four before losing out to former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland.

A collection of Neurotica's old tracks may be released in Europe next year on Shaefer's own label, Starr Factory Records. There are also opportunities to join Canadian and European festival rosters, but nothing concrete.

"Now, for us, all the animosity is gone. All the bitterness is gone. It's just about the music," Shaefer said. "We put no expectations on this other than to lift the roof on this joint this particular night."